Travel & Tourism

Delays expected on ‘busy’ M56 Manchester Airport route as resurfacing work takes place

Holidaymakers are being told to 'leave a little bit of extra time' for journeys.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 29th May 2024

Holidaymakers are being told to prepare for essential maintenance work happening on “one of the busiest” stretches of the M56.

Forming part of an “important” and “essential” wider maintenance project, National Highways will be is resurfacing sections of worn tarmac on both the eastbound and westbound carriageways between Junction 5 at Manchester Airport and Junction 6 at Hale Barns.

Some of the slip roads at junctions 5 and 6, as well as at Junction 4 for Wythenshawe, will also be resurfaced too.

All of the resurfacing and maintenance work – which also includes replacing some bridge joints and traffic detection loops in the road surface – will be done overnight starting from Monday 10 June, and because of the nature of it, occasional carriageway or slip road closures will be put in place while this is carried out.

The working hours will be between 9pm and 5am, or 7am on Saturdays, as according to National Highways, this is when the motorway is “at its quietest”.

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Delays are expected on a ‘busy’ M56 Manchester Airport route as resurfacing work takes place next month / Credit: Albert Bridge | Suhyeon Choi (via Unsplash)

The resurfacing programme includes a full closure of the eastbound carriageway between Junction 7 and Junction 5 en-route to the Airport for five nights from the evening of Monday 17 June to the morning of Saturday 22 June, while a further full closure of the eastbound carriageway between Junction 6 and Junction 4 is scheduled for the nights of Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 June, and Monday 8, Tuesday 9, and Wednesday 10 July. 

The eastbound M56 is closed between Junction 6 and Junction 5 on Thursday 13 and Friday 14 June, Monday 24, Tuesday 25, and Wednesday 26 June, and Thursday and Friday 4 and 5 July.

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And finally, two slip road closures affecting journeys to the Airport will also be taking place on the eastbound exit at Junction 5 on Friday 28 June, and the westbound exit at Junction 5 on Wednesday 17 July.

Temporary closures and diversions will be in place from Monday 10 June onwards / Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Diversions will, inevitably, be in place on all dates, and motorists heading to the Airport and beyond will be able to use an alternative motorway route during these closures.

Project Manager, Rob Williams, said National Highways is aiming to be “well out of the way” before the start of the school summer holiday period.

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“This is important and routine wear and tear work,” he explained.

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“We’re working closely with the airport to ensure they are aware of our timetable and a small number of overnight closures, which will mean drivers needing to leave a little bit of extra time to get to work or check-in for flights.”

More information on all M56 maintenance work can be found on the National Highways website.

Featured Image – Wikimedia Commons

Travel & Tourism

Manchester Airport issues latest travel update as it apologises to all passengers affected by power cut

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

Manchester Airport has issued an update on today’s travel as it apologises to all the passengers who were affected by the power cut yesterday.

The airport says it expects the travel schedule to “run as usual with no further disruption” today.

It comes after thousands of passengers travelling through Manchester Airport yesterday were hit with major disruption – with all flights cancelled from Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, and severe delays affecting Terminal 3 too.

The disruption was caused by a “significant power cut” in the early hours of yesterday morning, which had a knock-on effect on systems.

Passengers who were meant to travel from T1 or T2 were advised not to go to the airport.

Manchester Airport has issued its travel update to all passengers affected by yesterday’s power cut / Credit: Natali Quijano | Suhyeon Choi (via Unsplash)

All flights from both terminals were cancelled “until further notice”, and while those passengers who had already checked-in for their flights were expected to see be able to travel later in the day, they were told they would likely face delays due to a wide range of backlogged issues airport-wide.

Manchester Airport’s managing director, Chris Woodroofe, continued to keep all affected passengers updated throughout the day.

Now, with the dust settled and the flight chaos of yesterday hopefully a thing of the past, Manchester Airport has issued its latest statement addressing the expected travel schedule for today, and, most-notably, apologising to everyone who experienced disruption of any kind, at at any point, yesterday.

The latest statement on the airport’s website reads: “We would like to apologise to all those affected by the disruption in Terminals 1 and 2 today.

“Today’s schedule is expected to run as usual with no further disruption, so passengers should plan to travel to the airport as normal, checking in two hours ahead of their flight for short-haul, and three hours for long-haul, but it is always advisable to check the status of your flight before you travel to the airport.

“Airlines will be in touch with passengers to rearrange cancelled flights as we work with airlines, their baggage handling agents, and other partners to make sure passengers whose bags did not make it onto their flights are reunited with their belongings as soon as possible.”

The airport also thanked passengers for their “patience” in its latest statement.

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Thanks and appreciation was also shown by the airport to all its staff, airlines, and onsite partners for their “hard work and resilience”.

Featured Image – Albert Bridge (via Pxhere / Geograph)

Travel & Tourism

Coronation Street-themed tram travelling around Greater Manchester officially hits the tracks

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

A special themed tram celebrating the greatest TV soap of all time has officially hit the Metrolink tracks today.

And it’s “the most Manc tram ever” too, apparently.

It’s pretty well-known at this point that Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) constantly gets contacted by Coronation Street fans asking where the TV show’s dedicated tram stop is – which doesn’t actually exist, by the way – and is not helped by the fact there’s a CGI tram in the programme’s titles and a ‘tram stop’ on the soap’s set too.

In fact, after the infamous tram crash in 2010’s 50th Anniversary episode, TfGM had almost 300 queries asking if the trams were still running in Manchester… genuinely.

Over here in the ‘real world’, fans looking to head to the Coronation Street Experience for a special visit of the show’s set will need to hop off at the nearest stop, which is the IWM North, just a short wander away – but as of today (19 June), all that has now changed.

A special Coronation Street-themed tram has officially hit the Metrolink tracks / Credit: ITV Studios

That’s because, in true Corrie style, ITV Studios has proudly revealed what it’s calling “the most Manc transport ever” with the launch of the first-ever ‘Coronation Street Experience’ tram.

The unique homage to the show will meander across the Metrolink network for the next 12 months.

Created using special visuals from Manchester-based agency, Meanwhile, the so-called ‘Insta-trammable’ tram can be seen all dressed-up with gorgeous illustrations from the cobbles to give passengers the change to head to Rochdale through the legendary ‘Rovers doors’, arrive at Kingsway through the Kabin, make their way to the Velopark via Vera and Jack’s infamously-clad ‘No. 9 door’, or rock up at Radcliffe through the entrance to Roys Rolls.

As summer settles on our city, the ITV and TfGM teams also briefly snuck into the ‘real world’ earlier on today to turn the IWM Metrolink stop into ‘Weatherfield North’, especially for the themed tram’s official launch.

It’ll be travelling across Greater Manchester from today for the next 12 months / Credit: TfGM

“We’ve got our very own Weatherfield tram stop, where our characters catch a handy tram ‘into town’, and we’ve even very-occasionally got a virtual tram going past over our bridge, commented John Whiston, who is the MD for Continuing Drama at ITV Studios, as the tram officially hit the region’s tracks today.

“However, we’ve never actually ventured onto Manchester’s Metrolink other than fictionally, so it’s exciting that an actual tram will sport some fine Coronation Street livery.”

Mr Whiston added that the point of the new themed tram is to show visitors just “how easy it is to journey to the Coronation Street Experience on a real tram.”

Urging Mancs and Greater Manchester visitors to “keep an eye out” for the new Corrie-themed tram across the Metrolink network over the next 12 months, Pete Sommers, who is TfGM’s Interim Metrolink Network Director, added: “Metrolink, like Corrie, is an iconic symbol of Greater Manchester that has gone from strength to strength over the years, so we are delighted to be supporting ITV Studios and the Coronation Street Experience.

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“Passengers will also have the chance to board the Corrie-themed tram out on the network over the coming months, so I’d urge people to keep an eye out.”

Featured Image – ITV Studios

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